New Season starting soon - any news on a OTA fix for 443

stuart628,

are you by any chance shooting through trees? .... I have to go back and look at your post to see what kind of OTA antenna you have...

.... ok... 40" boom length ain't no 75 mile antenna. I don't care what their ad copy says. That's maybe a 30 to 40 mile antenna, tops.
Regardless, it *should* have pretty good multipath rejection.
What is your cable length and what kind of cable did you use?
Are you in a traffic pattern for a local airport? (I know that sounds dumb, but I live near Niagara Falls air base. You should see what C-130 and KC-135 can do to a signal! hehehe)
Do you notice the breakup more when it's windy? (normally this would mean you see it far less at night when there's little or no wind)
Is your cable run in close proximity to house power wires? (inside or out)

okay, its an 80: boom length on the antenna I have from radio shack, also i am shooting through trees, I am in airport traffic, I used 50 ft quad shield rg6, no I dont notice breakup when its windy, my wife said it happens during the day, and for me it will happen about 3 times in a half an hour program. its bad enough to just stutter the program, with once going to a screen saying it lost signal, BUT it was constantly at a high level, also I dont see it through my tv, as I have a cable run to the tv as well, with the same levels, but no break up.
 
Needed

http://www.warrenelectronics.com/antennas/Jointennas.htm

If you go to two antennas you might look into these. I had limited success because I was working with really marginal signals to begin with but others have had good success. When I had two antennas the best solution I came up with was an electronic a/b switch from rat shack (came with a convenient remote control).

This type ant combiner is needed to balance out between the 2. Plus the coax needs to be the same length to phase the 2 together. It would be even better if the ant that is pointed to the single tower had a frequency pass filter.
 
okay, its an 80: boom length on the antenna I have from radio shack, also i am shooting through trees, I am in airport traffic, I used 50 ft quad shield rg6, no I dont notice breakup when its windy, my wife said it happens during the day, and for me it will happen about 3 times in a half an hour program. its bad enough to just stutter the program, with once going to a screen saying it lost signal, BUT it was constantly at a high level, also I dont see it through my tv, as I have a cable run to the tv as well, with the same levels, but no break up.

Ok now this is just my opinion based on... well... something I can't see. But I think you've described pretty well so here goes.

#1 Using an 80" yagi for stations that are actually really close, you might actually have too much gain. That may sound dumb, but in this case it really could be that you're getting too much of a good thing. Try angling your antenna slightly OFF from being pointed directly at the towers that are closest.

--#1a. Seeing a "lost signal" message while the signal strength is still indicating plenty of signal could be an indication of the above, but it could also be true that the signal strength indicator is just lagging and the sampling intervals are not catching a signal dropout

#2 Your TV not having problems when the satellite receiver apparently does have problems, sounds to me like your TV's tuner is better than the satellite tuner at figuring out multipath. Not surprising. I'm certain that my panasonic plasma's tuner is better than the 622's OTA tuner, but .... I have it working fine anyways. And I did have to tweak my antenna for the 622 when I went from being directly connected to the TV, to running OTA through the 622.

I'm not doubting what you're seeing. There's obviously an issue somewhere. And I'm certainly no antenna expert. I'm just an old guy that has more experience with antennas than satellite dishes :)

And I know I keep coming back to multipath issues, but that's what this sounds like to me. That, or too much gain. I am assuming that you've checked all connections and connection hardware, made sure the cables were stripped correctly with a proper length stinger and all that stuff. I am also assuming that since you've used 50 feet of RG6, that this isn't combined with satellite signal anywhere. It's just a straight dedicated antenna cable run to the satellite receiver.

Here are a couple more questions:
Does this happen primarily on one or 2 channels in that tower cluster you're aimed at?
Is there a channel on which this never... or almost never.. happens?
Can you find the output power of the stations on those towers.

If you have a mix of high powered and low powered stations, it could be that the low powered ones are ok whereas the high powered ones, which you would think would give you that much BETTER of a result, are actually, in effect, overpowering the antenna.
 
A possible easy test for multipath is to aim the antenna off-center from the towers, isn't it ?

With an 86-96 signal strength (how do the number compare between the sat receiver and the TV's tuner ?), that doesn't sound like overload though. Then again, who knows what the sat receiver's meter is really indicating...
 
actually, if you look at multipath as signal reflecting off of objects and then arriving at the antenna from different directions, and at every-so-slightly different times, then simply aiming it off a bit may, or may not do the trick. We once stuck a yagi into a big metal garbage can and aimed it at the towers. Perfect signal! :) No, we didn't leave it that way, but... gives you something to work with.

Most people I know have a limited number of options for where they "want" to install their antenna. If they're DIYers then it's usually installed where it's easiest to access. I have learned over the years though that walking the roof with equipment can help you find a "sweet spot" that's better than anywhere else you might be considering. You can have 2 places only 10 feet apart that are really quite different. I have a lot of respect for antenna installers who know what they're doing. It's like a combination of art, science, and skill to install one really well. OTA is different from satellite. Satellite you are aiming at a bird in the sky. If you have line of sight and a solid mount point, it's going to come down to your skill in aiming at that bird. OTA antennas can be amazingly simple, or they can be a bit fussy. I do not envy what stuart628 is going through. It can be maddening. Like... "Why the F*** isn't this just WORKING?". I'm just tossing out ideas from experience. I grew up in a very antenna-oriented household. My dad BUILT antennas from plans he'd found or from plans my older brother came up with ("This should do --this--") Not terribly difficult, but a little different level of skill required than opening a box and assembling and installing. Various 2-way radio things like CB and Ham and TV and..... just lots of antenna stuff.

Hoping my ramblings can give stuart628 some ideas. Despite my sig....this ain't ALWAYS fun. :) Especially when the wife isn't happy with something. (yeah I have 28 years experience with wife configuration too..... and STILL haven't quite figured out all the fine points)
 

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Trouble with 622...and Ext HDD kudos!

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